Thrillers (Not the Michael Jackson Song)

I consider myself a fairly eclectic reader; if a book has an interesting premise or gets a good recommendation, I will probably pick it up, irregardless of genre or style.  One rule I have, however, is that I don't like to be scared.  Isn't life challenging enough without adding fictional fears?  This is why I mostly skip the thrillers.

I have read a few Stephen King novels, of which Dolores Claiborne was my favorite.  Probably because, unlike IT and Carrie and The TommyKnockers, there isn't really a supernatural scary element.  And for once, King really nails his female characters.  But mostly I'd rather be reading hilarious celebrity memoirs or Jane Austen.

Clearly, I am not someone who is up-to-date on the hottest new books.

However, a few years ago, I requested a book from the library based on a blurb in a magazine.  It sounded like it might be a little different, and the fact that it spent the year on best seller lists and must read trend posts had nothing to do with my decision to take it home with me.  The title of the book?  Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.  I whizzed through it in a weekend, at a time when that meant a serious sacrifice of sleep on my part and attention on my husband's.  But I couldn't put it down.

What I loved about this book (and probably what made other people take notice) is that it tells a really interesting story.  We follow Nick as he discovers that his wife is missing, dead maybe, and his life begins to unravel.  Then, at the halfway point, this already good story gets a CRAZY twist and becomes something else.  Even though I finished the book quickly, I couldn't stop thinking about it.  I told friends to read it.  I dissected Nick and Amy and their marriage with my husband.  I went opening night to see the Ben Affleck/Rosamund Pike starring film adaptation.  I even picked up a copy of Sharp Objects, an earlier novel of Flynn's.  I enjoyed that book as well, though it left a different feeling, one of needing a shower and a desire to forget a story that was seared in my brain.  Both stories have great characters, and realistic (though unlikely) plots.  And they really made me wonder what sort of sick, messed up, dysfunctional life Gillian Flynn has led.  (I looked into it, and apparently she's totally normal.)

More recently, I met an author at a local library event and decided to read some of her work.  I brought home The Good Girl and Every Last Lie by Mary Kubica.  I read The Good Girl first, and although I didn't think it had much in common with Gone Girl in its tone or story, somehow it reminded me of how I felt when I read it.  The Good Girl is about a young woman who disappears (okay, so it has something in common with Gone Girl...) and it's told through the perspective of her mother, the detective investigating her disappearance, and the guy who kidnapped her.  CREEPY.  But The Good Girl is also told in this jumping timeline, so that some chapters occur during the search for Mia, and some tell the aftermath.  In fact, this isn't even a spoiler, because it's only about 15 pages in that it is revealed that Mia returns home.  The novel takes on this spiraling quality as it takes the reader to the final pages, where clues and information are scattered and only in the last chapter does a clear picture emerge.  There's also a surprising twist that is only VERY subtly hinted at through the story, although I'm sure some internet braggart somewhere is claiming that he totally saw it coming the whole time.  Congratulations sir, some of us still enjoy the wonder and mystery of life.

I was so impressed by The Good Girl and the technique and story mastery of its author that I hurried to read Every Last Lie, Kubica's latest.  If I'm being honest (and why wouldn't I be?), it was a let down.  The plot was just interesting enough to keep me going, though I often felt like each chapter was taking too long to get to the point, and the ending was disappointing.  That being said, Ms. Kubica has a couple of novels I still haven't read, and I'm willing to give them a chance because the first was just that good.

I recommend skipping Every Last Lie, unless you have nothing else to do or need to be reminded how happy you are that your children are no longer breast feeding.  Instead, read one of Gillian Flynn's books for a shivering creepfest that will make you turn to your husband at 2am and ask, "What have we done to each other?  What will we do to each other?" or possibly make you question your own sanity.  Or find The Good Girl and get sucked into a terrific puzzle that kept me guessing.

Churchill and Orwell

I believe the same thing happens to every woman who becomes a mother.  There is a period of time when caring for children and the day to day realities of life become all one can handle, and during this time, one may feel that she has lost her former self.  This was certainly the case for me, as I fed and diapered and cared for three young children.  It began to feel as though I was only this one thing, Mom, and any independent thoughts or interests I'd had in the past were gone forever.

Thankfully I can report that, a few years down the road, there is a return.  A sense of autonomy and individuality that is impossible when one is breastfeeding and keeping a schedule to ensure daily naps.  One of the things I used to be, and haven't been for almost a decade, is a history nerd and lover of diplomacy.  I named one of my sons Winston because of my love for all things Churchill, his wit, his leadership, his rousing speeches that kept the British people going during WW2.  So I was already going to love Thomas E. Ricks book, Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom.  But another thing I did in my former life was voraciously consume science fiction novels.  Especially the classics, like Fahrenheit 451, A Brave New World, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and of course, 1984.  When I heard the author speaking about these two men in an  interview on Terri Gross, I knew I had to read it.

This book delighted me, and not just because it is well-written and thoroughly explores how the British fought back against the Nazis in WW2.  (I don't think that we, as Americans, appreciate just how different our world is today because of their tenacity and the extraordinary vision of their leader, although watching "The Man in the High Castle" on Amazon has certainly affected my view.)  I also loved reading something so thorough and smart.  I haven't come across the word "suzerainty" since college.  What's more, Mr. Ricks takes two men (the eponymous Winston Churchill and George Orwell) who are wildly different, and yet, for these years of war on their island, their lives bear striking similarities to one another.  This book flowed like a well-told story, and kept me returning day after day to read more.  I can only speak as someone who at one point in time was steeped in WW2 history, but I believe that anyone who decides to sit down with this book will learn something they didn't know.  And if you are someone who thinks that history is dull or hard to follow, this might be the work that changes your mind.

There are two major takeaways that are still reverberating in my mind although I finished the book and even read a mystery novel after.  The first concerns Churchill the wartime politician.  As Mr. Ricks writes in his final summary, "Many people around them expected evil to triumph and sought to make their peace with it.  These two did not."  I think this is why I was so disappointed during our most recent presidential election.  I wanted a politician who stood up and demonstrated true principles, to see among the candidates seeking the highest office in our country a person of courage and integrity.  Winston Churchill did this before war broke out in Europe.  He was often the only person in England's House of Commons sounding the warning alarm about Adolf Hitler and the danger he posed to freedom everywhere.  Even when his career suffered and his peers ignored him, he didn't back down, and he didn't change.  So when the war did come, when the other countries of Europe crumbled and surrendered to the German blitzkrieg, Churchill was ready to lead Britain to stand firm.  We could use more people like him in leadership.

The other idea that I appreciate from this study of Churchill and Orwell is the idea of remaining critical of something we love and support.  Too often I see this hypocrisy among people, that so long as it is their "side" involved, then whatever that group is doing is fine.  There was the immature refrain during President Obama's terms in office that he was "not my president."  And as much as people rolled their eyes, as soon as the tables turned and a Republican president took office, the counter was Donald Trump is "not my president."  We should be more like George Orwell, a man who supported the spread of liberal thought and communist practices, yet who remained an outspoken opponent to the kind of totalitarian state that Joseph Stalin was implementing in Russia.  It wasn't that Orwell was against socialism and collectivism, it was that he believed they could be accomplished without murdering all of one's political opponents and starving one's people.  He didn't want to bring down the Soviet Union, he wanted to make it better.  And so should we, here in our country, not defend the reprehensible, but we should hold each other and our leaders to a higher standard.  As Mr. Ricks writes, "In a world based on facts, in which the individual has the right to perceive and decide those facts on his or her own, the state must earn the allegiance of its citizens.  When it fails to live up to its rhetoric, it begins to forfeit that loyalty."  If you vote Republican because you believe in lowering taxes and having smaller government, if you find that your beliefs align more with a social conservativism, then vote your conscience.  It doesn't mean you have to defend a politician who brags about sexually assaulting women and tweets obsessively about TV shows when he has a country to run.  If you vote Democrat because you see the government as a means to improving the lives of our citizens and you desperately want to use tax dollars to fund healthcare and food programs and affordable housing, then go for it.  You should still be able to recognize short-comings in your candidates, and acknowledge the role back door deals in the DNC affected the outcome our election.

"To refuse to run with the herd is generally harder than it looks.  To break with the most powerful among that herd requires unusual depth of character and clarity of mind.  But it is a path we should all strive for if we are to preserve the right to think, speak, and act independently, heeding the dictates not of the state or of fashionable thought, but of our own consciences.  In most places and most of the time, liberty is not a product of military action.  Rather, it is something alive that grows or diminishes every day, in how we think and communicate, how we treat each other in our public discourse, in what we value and reward as a society, and how we do that.  Churchill and Orwell showed us the way."  If you are looking for a well-researched true story that inspires you to live a more principaled, courageous life, I recommend Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom.  And then consider dusting off your copy of 1984 or Churchill's war memoirs.